AGL comments on recent market events in South Australia

On 7 July 2016, AGL Torrens had a unit out of production to complete mandatory safety and compliance work associated with operating boilers and pressure vessels. This unit had been out since 28 June 2016.

AGL Torrens has operated at significantly higher than planned levels throughout winter and AGL has been actively managing outages of units to ensure reliable supply of capacity for South Australian customers.

High spot prices in South Australia were recently driven by a number of factors. With the closure of the Northern Power Station, the State is now heavily reliant on gas generation. Through June and July there were significant constraints in the gas market particularly impacting gas fired power in the State. This included the restricted capacity of the Heywood interconnector and lack of availability of adequate gas supplies that could be transported to South Australia. These factors resulted in a $35 million negative impact to AGL, as announced to the market on 7 July 2016.

The South Australian energy market is currently undergoing a transition and AGL is actively working with governments, regulators and others in the industry to help provide access to reliable energy supplies for customers.

About AGL
AGL is one of Australia’s leading integrated energy companies. It is taking action to responsibly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions while providing secure and affordable energy to its customers. Drawing on over 175 years of experience, AGL serves its customers throughout eastern Australia with meeting their energy requirements, including gas, electricity, solar PV and related products and services. AGL has a diverse power generation portfolio including base, peaking and intermediate generation plants, spread across traditional thermal generation as well as renewable sources including hydro, wind, solar, landfill gas and biomass.